Robert Buddan
When 2007 began, the Prime Minister at the time, Portia Simpson Miller, offered a New Year's message of transformation to build a nation in battle against poverty, crime and violence, requiring all to come together and commit to national, community and personal success. Before the year had ended, Jamaica had a new Prime Minister. Mr. Golding's New Year message had offered hope for greater safety and security, protection of rights, government of trust, and Parliament that more effectively represented the people. Governor-General, Sir Kenneth Hall, asked Jamaicans to be good citizens, working harder for a stronger economy, peace in our communities, and development of family to build a stronger social fabric for the nation.
Much has changed in the year, even though we would agree that these objectives remain valid. But more needs to change. After all, too many Jamaicans have said the country is going in the wrong direction, even slightly more after the last parliamentary elections. The poverty rate did decline slightly in 2006 and we wait to see if it declined any in 2007, considering cost-of-living increases that are the highest in years. The former police commissioner pledged in February that the murder rate would go down by seven per cent this year. It has increased instead to the point that things seem out of control.
Misleading
Then Commissioner of Police Lucius Thomas and Deputy Commissioner of Police Jevene Bent announcing that there were no new crime initiatives but a strengthening of systems and strategies which yielded success in 2006. The announcement was made January 30 at the Police Officers' Club on Hope Road in St. Andrew. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer
Our political leaders seemed to have forgotten the message of the new year. A motion of censure was continuing against Karl Samuda for allegedly misleading the House over the Hylton Report, but if Parliament is to represent the people effectively and Government is to be trusted, a motion of censure should also be brought against two new MPs for misleading voters to get them to vote for the JLP in local government elections.
In an election year, the budget of April reflected a real decline, even though financial and economic analysts couldn't resist calling it an election budget. Now we hear that special allocation of election funding helped the JLP win the local government elections in December, raising more questions about trust in Government.
Name calling on both sides did not do well to make the country come together. Joan Gordon Webley called Mrs. Simpson Miller 'Jezebel' and the churches 'hypocrites', and Roger Clarke and Donald Buchanan labelled the JLP side 'evil' and 'Satan'. Even after the September election, Mr. Golding was saying that termites had eaten away the PNP's brains, further helping to pull us apart. Crude public outbursts by Daryl Vaz and Danville Walker completed the year's low public standards.
In August, Mr. Golding said that if his party formed the next Government he would give teeth to the Political Code of Conduct so that candidates who are found guilty of offences relating to the conduct of elections would be disqualified. We now know that two of his junior ministers were guilty of such offences leading up to the local government elections and we await sanctions. Mr. Golding had said, "Right now they are just a code of conduct, you honour them if you are good and breach them if you are feisty. There are no sanctions that can be applied except public reprimand." Actually, it is in Mr. Golding's hands to apply sanctions.
Economic leaders did not make the best of opportunities either. The Cricket World Cup was the greatest opportunity for making money during the year. More than 60 per cent of Jamaicans supported the hosting, while the Chamber of Commerce attacked it instead of taking advantage of it.
We have not been good citizens either. There has been little of the peace that we hoped for. Responding to violence in schools, Andrew Holness, now the Minister of Education, went so far as to say that the parents of violent children should be sent to prison and the President of the National Parent- Teacher Association agreed. The Senate had to increase penalties early in the year for parents who conspired to involve their children in human trafficking.
Excellence
There was collective and personal excellence, however, and the message of nation building was not lost on everyone. In February, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) gave Jamaica its best review in nearly 20 years and Omar Davies can feel that he left charge of an economy that was poised for strong growth. Jamaica Broilers was the rare company that began exporting ethanol in the first quarter of the year. We proudly played our part in hosting the Cricket World Cup and the cricket legacy programme tells us that we will more than make up the cost with investments pledged. In June, we were told that Jamaica increased hotel-room capacity by over 120 per cent over 10 years, which should stand us well for the tourist season. All is set for work to begin in February on Falmouth's redevelopment, good for rural development and good for heritage and tourism.
Our sports and cultural personalities continued to achieve as usual. Asafa Powell improved his world record, showing how we can strive for personal excellence and lift the pride of the nation Herb McKenley's death was obviously sad, it reminded us that our excellence goes far back in history. Our own Chris Gayle led Jamaica to a regional cricket championship and now captains the West Indies. Zahra Redwood became the first Rastafarian to be crowned Miss Jamaica Universe, a special touch in a year in which we celebrated the bicentennial of the abolition of the Atlantic trade in slaves we have still not received an apology from the slaver countries, much less reparations.
Hurricane Dean was something we couldn't stop, but we did well in preparing and restoring normalit politics and thievery complicated the recovery. One Jamaican, Professor Anthony Chen, distinguished the region as a member of United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore.
It was good to see the Prime Minister attend the PetroCaribe meeting in Havana in December, showing realism that the arrangement is a crucial lifeline to an oil-dependent country like Jamaica. We celebrated CARICOM-Cuba Day in December, and it was noteworthy that Cuba has helped 10,000 Caribbean people to regain their sight through Operation Miracle and saved the region US$193 million by donations of energy-saving light bulbs to the region. But we also allowed free health care for all children at public hospitals and the National Health Fund provided over 40,000 free health tests for citizens islandwide during the year.
High objectives
A third licence was granted at year end for the exploration of oil and natural gas, good news in a year of historically high oil prices.
In a few days we will be hearing New Year messages from the Governor-General, the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition again. They will point to the problems we need to overcome and set high objectives for the nation. We will expect our leaders to set better examples. There's a sense that we have lost control over crime and prices and we would hope our economic leaders would be more productive and our people more peaceful. Major international events will continue to constrain us in some ways, but create opportunities in other ways. This year has been worse than 2006. Let us hope that the triumphalism of the new Government quickly matches the realism required for the times.
Robert Buddan lectures in the Department of Government, UWI, Mona. Email: Robert.Buddan@uwimona.edu.jm.
